Morgan Stanley Lowers Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Price Target to $38.00

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) had its target price lowered by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $70.00 to $38.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 8.57% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Friday, November 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Moderna in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Leerink Partners cut their price objective on shares of Moderna from $60.00 to $48.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Moderna from $108.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Moderna from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.68.

Moderna Price Performance

Moderna stock traded up $0.54 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $35.00. 1,425,900 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,275,745. The company’s fifty day moving average is $41.78 and its 200-day moving average is $67.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 4.20 and a current ratio of 4.39. Moderna has a 52 week low of $31.94 and a 52 week high of $170.47. The firm has a market cap of $13.47 billion, a PE ratio of -6.01 and a beta of 1.60.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.89) by $1.92. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 17.68% and a negative net margin of 43.77%. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($1.39) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Moderna will post -9.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Moderna

In related news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total value of $60,676.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $843,690.43. The trade was a 6.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 2,664 shares of company stock valued at $115,210 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Moderna during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Moderna by 78.7% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 109,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,031,000 after buying an additional 48,316 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in Moderna in the 2nd quarter worth $426,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Moderna by 2.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,427,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,542,000 after acquiring an additional 29,566 shares during the period. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Moderna in the second quarter valued at about $1,672,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

About Moderna

Moderna, Inc, a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune, and cardiovascular diseases in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Its respiratory vaccines include COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, spikevax, and hMPV/PIV3 vaccines; latent vaccines comprise cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, and human immunodeficiency virus vaccines; public health vaccines consists of Zika, Nipah, Mpox vaccines; and infectious diseases vaccines, such as lyme and norovirus vaccines.